Improvise Jazz Guitar

Improvise Jazz Guitar by first narrowing your definition of what you mean by the term “jazz guitar”. Jazz music, as with most styles of music, can be sub categorized into many variables. For example, Dixie Land Jazz is quite different than Smooth Jazz, and yet they both fall under the category of Jazz. That being said, there is not just one way to approach an improvisation. There are many ways and tips on how to unleash your creativity. We will explore a few of them here and give you some ideas.

How To Improvise Jazz Guitar

Although there is not just one answer to this question, there are a couple of general jazz improvisation techniques that are consistent throughout the genre. One is the liberal use of chromatics, whether that be a scale or approach notes, and the other is the use of ideas and phrases based around chords.

There is a lot that can be learned about improvisation, but there are a couple of things that will generate immediate results.

What to Know That Helps

Before we get into the meat of Jazz Improvisation, there is basic guitar knowledge that if you don’t know, you should make it a goal to learn. If you don’t know this stuff right now, that’s OK. You can still move ahead and look at what’s coming up. However, all of this would make more sense and be easier if you had all of these basics in your control already.

Things you should know:

• Where All Of The Notes Are On Your Guitar
• Scales (Particularly the Major, Minor, Chromatic, and Pentatonic)
• Chord Knowledge over the entire neck
• Dexterity Skills

Jazz Improvisation Plan 1

It would be great if we could just close our eyes and immediately slip into flow state where improvisation is seamless and effortless. Yes, there are phenomenal players that can do this. However, sometimes that’s not so easy and it’s nice to have a plan to help spark the creative engine.

Here is a workable plan. Connect 3 ideas to develop one single phrase. The ideas will be: 1. Chromatic, 2. Modal, and 3. Pentatonic.

In this example, lay down a rhythm of 4 beats of Am7 followed by 4 beats of a D9 chord. That will be our rhythmic phrase.

 chords

                                         

Am7 D9

The rhythm indicates that they key is centered around the Am7 Chord. In other words, the “A” note sounds like that is where everything wants to resolve to. Those of you who have some theory knowledge can see that the A Dorian Mode would be a good choice, so we are going to use that mode as part of our ad lib and phrase building plan.

Rather than showing you a note for note solo transcription, I’d rather give you the ad lib “concept” and let you experiment. Again, the 3 ideas that we are connecting are the chromatic scale, the modal scale (Dorian in this case), and the minor pentatonic scale. The chromatic scale is really essential. Jazz players lean heavily on that sound.

Here are the three scale patterns written out in tablature. The first thing to do is to familiarize yourself with each one.

Chromatic

A Dorian

A Minor Pentatonic

First, play through the 3 scale patterns several times. Once you have done that,  start working on ad lib. As I mentioned, the chromatic scale is important to giving us that Jazzy edge.

Here are 3 chromatic idea examples that we can use to start. Notice that there is no timing indicated. That is intentional so that you are free to tweak your phrasing to your liking. 

Start your ad lib with the chromatic phrase and then seamlessly move from that into using the modal scale, and then seamlessly move from that into a minor pentatonic phrase or lick.

Practice and see what you can come up with. The cool thing in this example is that it is “all” good. Even outside notes work well because by the using the chromatics scale, you have conditioned the ear to hear notes which are not key centered. In other words, notes that are dissonant. Do keep in mind that your listener might not be as progressive in their musical taste as you are. If you want to keep it a more inside, then start and end on a note found within the minor pentatonic scale.

Chromatic example phrase 1

Chromatic example phrase 2

Chromatic example phrase 3

Jazz Improvisation Plan 2

Now, let’s come up with a different plan. This one is similar in the sense that we will use 3 different concepts to build 1 ad lib solo phrase. This time we will use a Chord Scale, a Chromatic Scale, and a Modal Scale.

Use the vamp of strumming 4 beats on an Am chord, followed by strumming  4 beats on the D9 chord. As part of our plan, use the A Dorian Mode and the Chromatic Scale which was tabbed out in the previous example.

Let’s replace the A Minor Pentatonic Scale with an a chord scale. A chord scale built off of the Amin7, or a chord scale off of the D9, or even both would be interesting. A chord scale is simply a scale built using the notes of the chord.

A min 7 Chord Scale

D9 Chord Scale

Use this plan for your flow: 

Start with the A Minor 7 Chord Scale

then …..move into the Chromatic Scale

then …..move into the A Dorian Mode

As before, the goal is to seamlessly connect the 3 ideas into one phrase.